New Jersey is My Home
Home is where I feel sand between my toes
And smell freshly made boardwalk funnel cake
Sandcastles are washed away by the tide
Home is where the pine barrens stand tall
Ospreys soar above with their watchful gaze
As wildlife hides within reeds of cattails
Home is where the radio plays Springsteen
As I drive down the Garden State Parkway
To make my way back into your arms
Moving On
I am over the worst of it.
Sorrow no longer calls my name,
But a piece of you remains
Deep inside my heart
As my life continues without you.
Rebecca Dietrich is a writer, photographer, and genocide scholar from the Jersey Shore. Her debut chapbook “Scholar of the Arts and Inhumanities” is set to be published by Finishing Line Press in November 2023. Dietrich’s poetry has been featured in publications by Plumwood Mountain Journal, Making Waves: A West Michigan Review, and Black Spot Books. She is an active member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Dietrich holds a B.A. in Psychology from Stockton University and she is currently studying for her M.A. in Genocide Prevention & Human Security at Keene State College.
Image by Derek Jensen (Tysto), CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons